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it's a good sign that you should go after it. That also happened in “Adaptation”. I had to drive
down to New York and audition for that with Spike Jonze and I was a little hesitant about that.
Thank goodness I did take that drive and do that audition because a lot of wonderful things, a
lot of wonderful discoveries happened in that hour and a half audition. Usually when an actor
reads a script you get a pretty good idea in what direction you have to go, where the writer
wants you to go. In Adaptation this was an example where I saw I had so many ideas about
this character and different ways to go, different interpretations of this character that at the
audition I asked Spike to please bear with me. This is unusual to ask because you usually don’t
get a chance to read a scene that you’re auditioning more than twice. And that being the
director will allow you your interpretation and if he’s interested and sees some potential then
he'll tweak it and make some suggestions and you do a second reading. With Spike I said
“Please bear with me. I can go SO many places with the John Laroche character. Let me show
you” and thank goodness he did. So we worked on about four scenes and I gave him four, and
sometimes five, interpretations of what I had in mind for the scene. We put it on video tape and
what we realized is that when we shot the film we continued to work that way. All Spike had to
say was ”You’re the smartest man in the world dealing with Meryl Streep” - “and now this time
you do the same scene and you’re totally intimidated by this woman” - “OK this time she’s lucky
to be spending time with you”
Q: Chris, how about the alternate ending in “Married Life”? Was there one?
A: You know the studios do test screenings with audiences and they get responses from the
audiences. We had about another ten minutes of this film and what happened was at the point
where the film ended here there’s another segment where we jumped twenty years to the late
60’s. Pierce and Patty and Rachel and I are in age makeup twenty years on. The little boy I
spoke to on the phone, my daughter’s son in the film, that boy gets married in the late sixties.
On the way home from the wedding we have a car accident. Patty Clarkson who plays my wife is
killed and I’m in the hospital. Pierce Brosnan’s character comes to visit me and I say that I don’t
want to go on living any longer without her. And Pierce of course misinterprets that I’m saying
that I can’t live without Rachel McAdams but I’m saying I can’t live without Patty. And I ask him
to go to the photo store and get the same poison that I got in my attempt to murder my wife.
And he does indeed. He leaves it on the hospital table and then I commit suicide. When they
screened that it was too much of a downer so they decided to cut that. That’s why they have
screenings.
Q: How much more acting is involved in making a film than what we see?
A: “The Kingdom” was shot over a five month period. “Married Life” was shot over a 31 day
period so it varies. When you shoot a film you’ll easily work 12 – 14 hours a day. You can do
from, on a low budget film you’ll do maybe five takes per scene to a studio film where you’ll do
maybe thirty per scene. So it just completely varies with your budget if it’s an independent low
budget film or a studio film. Just as a side note something I was quiet about for three years but
felt like talking about it through interviews about “American Beauty”. For me understandably,
the difficulty they had in the character of Colonel Fitts. I say the difficulty in understanding
Colonel Fitts was because thirteen of my scenes in American Beauty were cut. Everything, for
me, that gave justification to why the character was the way he was and why he was in such
denial and why his gay neighbors two houses down so infuriated him. The gay community got it
but there were a lot of questions and confusion about that character. What was cut out of the
film was in no way under my control.
next page----> Why are films so short?
down to New York and audition for that with Spike Jonze and I was a little hesitant about that.
Thank goodness I did take that drive and do that audition because a lot of wonderful things, a
lot of wonderful discoveries happened in that hour and a half audition. Usually when an actor
reads a script you get a pretty good idea in what direction you have to go, where the writer
wants you to go. In Adaptation this was an example where I saw I had so many ideas about
this character and different ways to go, different interpretations of this character that at the
audition I asked Spike to please bear with me. This is unusual to ask because you usually don’t
get a chance to read a scene that you’re auditioning more than twice. And that being the
director will allow you your interpretation and if he’s interested and sees some potential then
he'll tweak it and make some suggestions and you do a second reading. With Spike I said
“Please bear with me. I can go SO many places with the John Laroche character. Let me show
you” and thank goodness he did. So we worked on about four scenes and I gave him four, and
sometimes five, interpretations of what I had in mind for the scene. We put it on video tape and
what we realized is that when we shot the film we continued to work that way. All Spike had to
say was ”You’re the smartest man in the world dealing with Meryl Streep” - “and now this time
you do the same scene and you’re totally intimidated by this woman” - “OK this time she’s lucky
to be spending time with you”
Q: Chris, how about the alternate ending in “Married Life”? Was there one?
A: You know the studios do test screenings with audiences and they get responses from the
audiences. We had about another ten minutes of this film and what happened was at the point
where the film ended here there’s another segment where we jumped twenty years to the late
60’s. Pierce and Patty and Rachel and I are in age makeup twenty years on. The little boy I
spoke to on the phone, my daughter’s son in the film, that boy gets married in the late sixties.
On the way home from the wedding we have a car accident. Patty Clarkson who plays my wife is
killed and I’m in the hospital. Pierce Brosnan’s character comes to visit me and I say that I don’t
want to go on living any longer without her. And Pierce of course misinterprets that I’m saying
that I can’t live without Rachel McAdams but I’m saying I can’t live without Patty. And I ask him
to go to the photo store and get the same poison that I got in my attempt to murder my wife.
And he does indeed. He leaves it on the hospital table and then I commit suicide. When they
screened that it was too much of a downer so they decided to cut that. That’s why they have
screenings.
Q: How much more acting is involved in making a film than what we see?
A: “The Kingdom” was shot over a five month period. “Married Life” was shot over a 31 day
period so it varies. When you shoot a film you’ll easily work 12 – 14 hours a day. You can do
from, on a low budget film you’ll do maybe five takes per scene to a studio film where you’ll do
maybe thirty per scene. So it just completely varies with your budget if it’s an independent low
budget film or a studio film. Just as a side note something I was quiet about for three years but
felt like talking about it through interviews about “American Beauty”. For me understandably,
the difficulty they had in the character of Colonel Fitts. I say the difficulty in understanding
Colonel Fitts was because thirteen of my scenes in American Beauty were cut. Everything, for
me, that gave justification to why the character was the way he was and why he was in such
denial and why his gay neighbors two houses down so infuriated him. The gay community got it
but there were a lot of questions and confusion about that character. What was cut out of the
film was in no way under my control.
next page----> Why are films so short?
Interview with Chris Cooper - May 10, 2008
Q: How do you get involved with various movies?
A: It Varies. For example I did a film playing Robert
Redford’s brother. It was called “Horse Whisperer”. I have
to say in several cases my wife has been the one to make
me aware of certain projects or coax me to commit to
certain project that I’m hesitant about. Horse Whisperer
was one of those. The book was out. And somehow she
had heard it was going to be made into a film so she got
me the book and I read it. Though the character in the
book is very different. He’s a big football player size guy. I
got on it. I got on it real early and took a trip over to Los
Angeles and had an appointment with Robert Redford and
we got along very well. A week or two after I got home I
found out I got the part. Another example is “American
Beauty” I was initially very excited about the script. It
went through a lot of rewrites and changes. The more and
more I read it the more and more depressed I got. That
was another character where I said “I don’t know if I want
to go there and spend four months dealing with this
character”. Marrianne said if you’re afraid of the character
A: It Varies. For example I did a film playing Robert
Redford’s brother. It was called “Horse Whisperer”. I have
to say in several cases my wife has been the one to make
me aware of certain projects or coax me to commit to
certain project that I’m hesitant about. Horse Whisperer
was one of those. The book was out. And somehow she
had heard it was going to be made into a film so she got
me the book and I read it. Though the character in the
book is very different. He’s a big football player size guy. I
got on it. I got on it real early and took a trip over to Los
Angeles and had an appointment with Robert Redford and
we got along very well. A week or two after I got home I
found out I got the part. Another example is “American
Beauty” I was initially very excited about the script. It
went through a lot of rewrites and changes. The more and
more I read it the more and more depressed I got. That
was another character where I said “I don’t know if I want
to go there and spend four months dealing with this
character”. Marrianne said if you’re afraid of the character
